Promoting Dignity, Meaningfulness and Mental Well-Being

Patient with a life‐limiting serious illness commonly experience substantial emotional and spiritual distress, death anxieties, depressive symptoms and loss of dignity and purpose in life. Fostering dignity and meaning and relieving psychological distress have been identified as a core objective for end‐of‐life care. However, individual's needs for dignity and psychological support at the end of life may vary. Therefore, a personalized approach is needed. On the basis of theoretical frameworks and existing dignity‐ fostering and meaning‐ based interventions, as well as an one‐day workshop with international experts in the field of palliative care, a personalized modular intervention, consisting of three modules, including CALM Therapy, Dignity Therapy, and a mindfulness‐based Intervention, was developed.